Tag: ione

How popular is the baby name Ione in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Ione and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Ione.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Ione

Number of Babies Named Ione

Born in the U.S. Since 1880

Posts that Mention the Name Ione

In June of 1982, the Toledo Blade ran a short article about two local brothers who “enjoy the distinction of having initials which spell their names.” One was Thomas Owen Matzinger (T.O.M.), the other was James Irvin Matzinger (J.I.M.). Their dad Mike said it was “just as well” that he didn’t have any more kids, because he couldn’t think of any other sets of names to fit the pattern.

My guess is that Mike was joking, because there are several other sets of initials that could work with an M-surname like Matzinger, one of which, T.I.M., is just a letter away from T.O.M.

In fact, there are at least a couple of combinations that would work with every type of surname.

So today, in honor of the Matzingers of Toledo, I’ve come up with a long list of name-spelling initials. They’re sorted by third initial (that is, the first letter of the last name) so you can scroll straight to the set that matches up with your own surname.

The baby name Iona isn’t very popular these days, but it saw a moderate amount of usage in the early 1900s. It has several potential origins, including the Scottish island of Iona and the ancient Greek name Ione.

Beyond usage and origin, though, there’s the fascinating fact that the name Iona sounds just like the start of this sentence: “I own a…”

So have you ever wondered what all the Ionas have owned?

I was curious about this. So I checked census records, birth records, marriage records, etc., looking for Ionas who (ostensibly) owned things — that is, Ionas who had nouns as surnames. And I found lots of them.

Here are over 100 of the things that various historical Ionas have “owned,” according to their surnames:

I’ve created a couple of videos recently (on YouTube) and I’m looking forward to creating similar audio/video content in the future.

But here’s the thing: It’s no fun if it’s just me! I’d love to feature audio from you — your stories, opinions, questions, requests, and so on.

So I’ve set up this phone number (should go straight to voicemail) for collecting anything you’d like to tell me about names: 305-204-NAME (6263).

Just call in and leave me a message!

What should you say? Here are some ideas:

Tell a story about your name.

This is the type of audio I’m most excited about. Lots of people have great name stories, and would be willing to share them…but don’t feel compelled to write those stories down and send them to some random baby name blogger. But what if they could call a number, speak their stories over the phone, and have those stories magically turned into YouTube videos (with no other effort on their part)? That sounds way more fun, right?

A few prompts:

What’s the story behind your name?

Have you had any unique experiences because of your name?

Has your name opened/closed any doors for you?

I’m particularly interested in name origin stories — I’ve been collecting/posting them in the name stories category for years — but I’d be happy to hear any story you want to tell me about your name and your experience of living with it.

Pronounce a name or two (or ten, or twenty).

This is the type of audio I’m next most excited about. Remember that Maryland mom who named her baby Ottilie with the British pronunciation in mind? She was so disappointed by the way Americans pronounced it that she ended up changing the name to Margot. This story makes me eager to gather recordings of names being spoken by all sorts of different people — particularly in various English accents — so that we can easily hear the differences.

Some ideas:

If you’re an English speaker, what’s your take on “Ottilie”? How about “Ione”?

If you’re a native Spanish speaker, how would you say “Xiomara”? “Jacinto”?

If you’re a native French speaker, how would you say “Maëlle”? “Loïc”?

If you’re a native Italian speaker, how would you say “Letizia”? “Enos“?

I think it would be most efficient to work from a pronunciation “wish list” so that the trickiest names get priority. To nominate a name for the list, leave a comment below.

If you call in with pronunciations, please remember to mention your accent and/or location as well. (“I’ve got a Southern Irish accent.” “I was born and raised in Omaha.” “I grew up in Jamaica.”) Same for people pronouncing non-English names. (If you speak Spanish, did you grow up in Buenos Aires? Barcelona? Bogotá?) With this context, the recordings are more useful.

Submit a baby name request.

The videos I’ve made so far are based on written Five-Name Friday requests, but it would be just as easy for me to splice in a spoken request. Be sure the request is still just two sentences long, though. (Check out the Need a Name? page for more information.)

Talk about anything else related to names.

Call as many times as you want, but each voicemail can only be up to three minutes long.

Speak clearly, particularly if you’re demonstrating how to pronounce a name.

Identify yourself…or not. It’s up to you. But if you’re telling a story about your name, we do need to know what your name is. :) Likewise, for pronunciation recordings we need information about your accent/language.

I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to use every single recording in a future video/audio, unfortunately.

By calling and leaving a message, you grant me (Nancy) perpetual license to use your message, in whole or in part, in any future piece(s) of media. (Here’s the policy page, btw.)

The number again is 305-204-6263. Those last four digits spell the word “name” on the telephone keypad, which is pretty cool. They also spell “oboe,” incidentally. :)

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in the year 79 A.D. buried a number of nearby communities, including the now-famous ancient city of Pompeii.

The city was forgotten for centuries, rediscovered in 1599, forgotten again, then rediscovered a second time in 1748. Excavations finally began in the mid-1700s, and the rest of the world soon came to know of Pompeii and its sad fate.

After Russian painter Karl Bryullov visited the ruins in 1828, he was inspired to create The Last Day of Pompeii (1830-1833), which depicts the destruction of Pompeii as Vesuvius erupts in the background. The massive painting (which measures 15 feet high by 21 feet long) became extremely popular.

English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton (of “It was a dark and stormy night” fame) saw the painting while it was on display in Italy. It inspired him to write the book The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), which also became extremely popular.

One of the book’s main characters is a blind slave-girl named Nydia (pronounced NID-ee-ah) who sells flowers to earn money for her owner.

She’s a memorable, tragic character who has since been portrayed in other works of art, most notably the sculpture Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii (see above) by American sculptor Randolph Rogers. Here’s a description:

[Nydia] struggles forward to escape the dark volcanic ash and debris of Mount Vesuvius as it erupts and buries the ancient city of Pompeii. Clutching her staff and cupping hand to ear, she strains for sounds of Glaucus (a nobleman with whom she has fallen desperately in love) and his fiancée Ione. Accustomed to darkness, blind Nydia uses her acute hearing to find the two, leading them to safety at the shore; but in the end, despairing of the impossibility of her love, she drowns herself.

Her name was not used in ancient times, though, and the author doesn’t offer any clues about how he coined this (ostensibly Greek) name. Many sources echo the theory that the name Nydia was based on the Latin word nidus, meaning “nest,” but this shouldn’t be interpreted as fact.

So…has the literary name Nydia ever been used as a real-life baby name?

Yes, but the name has never been very common. Here’s the number of U.S. baby girls that have been given the baby name Nydia since the turn of the century:

2014: 27 baby girls named Nydia

2013: 16 baby girls named Nydia

2012: 26 baby girls named Nydia

2011: 30 baby girls named Nydia

2010: 31 baby girls named Nydia

2009: 29 baby girls named Nydia

2008: 52 baby girls named Nydia

2007: 53 baby girls named Nydia

2006: 52 baby girls named Nydia

2005: 53 baby girls named Nydia

2004: 62 baby girls named Nydia

2003: 69 baby girls named Nydia

2002: 69 baby girls named Nydia

2001: 72 baby girls named Nydia

2000: 82 baby girls named Nydia

While a handful of people were named Nydia prior to the publication of Bulwer-Lytton’s book, consistent usage of the name began only after the book came out. Usage was at its highest during the last quarter of the 20th century. Even then, though, the name never managed to earn a spot among the top 1,000 girl names in the nation. Usage has been in decline ever since. (The spelling Nidia has followed a similar trajectory.)

So, not only is Nydia a relatively young name that originates in literature, it’s also a relatively rare name that’s reminiscent of more familiar options (like Lydia and Nadia). So it might be particularly appealing to parents who like literature names and/or “sweet spot” names (that is, names that are uncommon but not unheard of).